Lots of changes have been in the forefront of everything ‘jana’ lately. Doors closing (and locked) and the return of following my own path with my own creations is right here in front of me. With that, I have decided to start crafty-blogging again.

Just as before, I am wanting to try all sorts of new things—all at once. Before I can really kick it all in gear though, I have to get myself organized. For three years, my house has not been my first priority and that must change so that I can reclaim my awesome crafty space. I won’t be showing any ‘before photos’ this go around. I would go into full panic mode if ANYone were to actually see the mess I have created. Be assured that I will be showing little bits of progress here and there as it is all happening.

To get me back in the creative mode, I have been ‘borrowing’ the dining table to do some sign painting and crafting. I am enjoying designing my own graphics again, as well. I have even started a little side business of painted decor. Initially Inspired is the name I have chosen, in hopes that I will be offering monograms/initials/letters for personalizing.

I have had lots of fun getting back into the swing of things. I have missed sticky fingers, paint in my hair and vinyl stuck in the most unlikely of places on my body. This feels like home to me and I could not be happier.

Fall and Famous People

Bad, BAD Blogger! Here we had so many nice people stop by and leave such wonderful comments…and then I just *POOF*! As with many of us, LIFE just gets in the way of my creative endeavors sometimes. My greatest apologies for not posting a winner yet. I could go on and on about what all got in the way and had me so preoccupied, but I will instead move forward and ask for forgiveness AND most importantly ….

POST THE WINNER!

GrammaP says…

Wow–now I know why my sister is so addicted to making these!!

GrammaP, please send me your address and I will get these shipped out immediately!

Thank you for stopping by and thank you to all of our participants who proudly displayed their amazing dress tags!

And here is the first of three videos posted of all the tags received in this Dress Form Tag Swap.

I had so much fun creating my tags for this swap, but not near as much as I did “hanging out” with all of the participants.

My first tag is from the Halloween Category. The Mummy is wrapped in cheesecloth and I cut a little bat from some trim that I purchased at my local scrap store.

This second tag is for the Designer’s Choice category and sports an adorable apron cut from the Paper Dolls for Everyday Cricut Cartridge. Purple is the color of the day with the ribbon matching the gingham paper used for the apron.

My favorite of the three tags and the one that I spent the most time researching, inking, distressing, embossing, and decopauging is another Designer’s Choice member. Vintage Fly-Fishing is alive and well on this tag.

The vest and hat both came from the Paper Dolls for Everyday Cartridge. I found the vintage magazine graphic online and decoupaged it to the tag prior to adding the Tim Holtz Sewing Room Dress Form.

The back of this tag includes frames cut from the Mothers Day 2010 Cartridge. Each of the vintage photos of women and their catch for the day were found online. Each was printed and then inked with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink to give them an aged look.

I am so lucky to have a Guest Designer join me on my blog for this blog hop. You will see Cindy32 further down in our blog hop line-up, which will bring you back to Simply My Crafts for another look at all that she has created. This is my first time to swap with Cindy. I am so very happy she joined us and I am looking forward to CMB swapping with her again.

So, what’s a Blog Hop without Blog Candy? Of course, we have candy…a set of die cuts from the Tim Holtz Sewing Room Set, the Sizzix Movers and Shakers Tag/Boolplate Die by Tim Holtz, and the Tim Holtz Birdcage Die with a bit of other goodies thrown in for good measure. First let me tell you what you have to do for a chance at winning. You will receive chances for each of the following steps. First and foremost, leave a comment here for your first chance. Gain other chances by completing the next steps and coming back to leave another comment telling me which of the other steps you completed.

So here they are …

1. Comment on this post.
2. Google Friend/Follow this Blog
3. Like my Simply My Crafts Page on Facebook.
4. Become a subscriber on my YouTube Channel.
5. Leave a comment on each of the blogs in this Blog Hop. (Worth 2 Extra Chances!)
6. Comment again to tell me which of the above steps you have completed.

So that is seven…count them…up to SEVEN chances you have for winning!

So after commenting here, you must RUN…not walk…to your next stop along the way to Lil Red’s CraftinHood, where you will find the most amazing dress form tag.

My name is Cindy Lawton aka Cindy32 on the Cricut Message Board. JanaZ has asked me to be a guest designer on her blog. You are officially taking part in the “Dressed To The Nines Blog Hop”! Welcome, welcome, one and all. Welcome, welcome short & tall. Please enjoy learning about how these tags were made.

My VERY FIRST Dress Form Tag was in the FALL/THANKSGIVING category. The name of the tag is “COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS”. The front of the tag is Best Occasions paper & the back of the tag is Making Memories Designer Paper. I inked the edges of the dress form & the tag with Mocha Mama Powder Puff Chalking Ink by Quick Quotes Scrapbook Company. The words & the leaves came from the Wall Decor & More cart and the infamous turkey came from the Simply Charmed cart. The dress is made with the same exact paper that I used on the back of the tag but is covered with a piece of ivory satin ribbon. The wrap around is orange wire ribbon…and an orange rhinestone for a hint of bling. My very first tag enlightened me about all of the blessings in my life I have and of all the wonderful people I have been blessed to meet on the Cricut Message Board.

My 2nd Dress Form Tag was in the DESIGNERS CHOICE category. I soon realized why everyone loves this particular category…you can do whatever you want!! The name of this tag is “ALL DOLLED UP”. The front & back of this tag are made from the S.E.I. Chocolat 12×12 paper pad. I inked the edges of the tag with Bloody Mary Powder Puff Chalking Ink by Quick Quotes Scrapbook Company. The skirt on the dress form and the diamond are from The Happily Ever After cart. The diamond was inked with the Bloody Mary color as well as the tag. The “All Dolled Up” is an I.Clear stamp from the dollar bin at Michael’s. The top part of the dress is sheer burgundy wire ribbon wrapped around twice to give it the layered look. The Color Me Crazy flower in the top right had corner, was also inked with the Bloody Mary and then glued down, brad and all. The sheer gold ribbon adds the finishing touch to my “ALL DOLLED UP” tag.

The next stop on the Dressed to the Nines Blog Hop is at Paper Scraps and More…I know you will love what she has designed for our swap!

Upcycling materials that would normally be thrown out or even sent to the thrift shop always makes me feel good. Today’s project is no exception. After viewing Marion Smith’s video of her new scraproom, I KNEW I had to have a chicken wire inspiration board of my very own. I have been keeping watch over a couple of different thrift stores for several months now, but this past week I realized that I need not look any farther than my own home.

We had a large framed print that had been displayed in my dear, sweet mother-in-law’s house for several years, just leaning against a wall in a spare room at her house. We had taken all the wall decorations down when we painted the house and are now slowly trying to add pieces back to the walls, as we add our own “flair”.

I LOVED this print. Unfortunately it was very dated and damaged a bit, but yet I just could NOT throw it away. I guess I was waiting for it to “speak to me”. The warped print removed from the frame….

I have always loved egg and dart or egg and tongue crown moulding and this frame had a variation of the egg pattern in the outer portion of the frame.

So, on my birthday, My Hero took me to our local hardware store and we picked up the items needed to complete this project. He is so much better at managing the spray paint can than I am and I very gladly handed over that leg of the project to him.

Originally, my plan was to cover the entire frame with a light wash of black, but when we discovered the flocking was going to be problematic we had to paint over it completely. After painting the entire frame, we waited a bit before attaching the chicken wire to the reverse side of the frame. My handy-dandy electric staple gun was very efficient while stretching and pulling at the same time as attaching the wire. The ends were bent back to prevent getting jabbed by the sharp wires.

The next step was to crackle paint the front with a scrafty rendition of homemade crackle paint. After a few practice runs on the reverse side of the frame, I decided that I prefered the the black over the cream….so I sealed it with a light coat of glaze and called it good.

I hope you will check back soon to see a full sized photo with a few embellisments added. In the meantime, check out Marion’s scraproom tour and see what influenced my very own chicken wire inspiration board.

Sometimes we all have to make do with what we have. I had hoped by now that Provocraft would have introduced a new “College” cartridge that would include all things college related….Sports, Student Government, Diplomas, Sorority, Fraternity, Dorm stuff….not to mention a GREEK ALPHABET. I can keep hoping that one will appear soon, but until then I do the best I can with my Gypsy and Cricut.
Since starting this blog, I have posted at least one item that is sorority related and I received requests on how I made my letters.

I only needed an Alpha, Gamma and a Delta for my youngest daughter, so I have not tried to design any of the other letters of the Greek Alphabet. Thinking it might be easier to explain by the spoken word, rather write out some directions, I decided to make a video tutorial on these three little letters.